Right Here Waiting
by Griselda Banks
Summary: Oneshot. He asks. She answers. And they are both surprised. Postseries EdWin.


**Author's Note: This fic was really a spur-of-the-moment inspiration; I don't normally find EdWin that interesting. I mean, it's canon and everything, and I support it wholeheartedly, but I just don't find it as interesting of a romance as, say, Royai. However, I was listening to "Right Here," and discovered just how EdWin it is. The idea just wouldn't leave me alone till I'd written this.**

**N.B.: This is a songfic, but not your normal kind of songfic where the lyrics of the song are interspersed throughout the story. Rather, the lyrics are used sort of like an outline for the story. Those who are familiar with the song may be able to tell which parts were inspired by which lines. This is my first experiment with this kind of songfic; I have since taken to calling this kind a Banks Songfic, from egotism and a lack of any better term to use.**

"No."

"Wh-What?"

"You heard me," she said softly, turning her head away so she wouldn't have to look at his stunned, white face. Winry had thought very carefully, weighing every aspect she could think of, since he had first asked her yesterday morning. She had told him she would give him her answer in a day's time, and he had agreed with a half-hopeful, half-disappointed expression. She knew he had expected her to say yes, perhaps with an elated smile, and then everything would be wonderful. She hated to disappoint him like this, but after twenty-four hours of careful thought, she knew she had to.

The seconds dragged on, and when Ed spoke again, his voice was hollow. "I thought you loved me, Winry."

"I do," Winry whispered, closing her eyes as they stung with tears. She clenched her fists around the fabric of her warm coat and pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.

"Then why-" Ed suddenly checked himself, as though he had realized the answer to his unfinished question. "It's because of me, isn't it?" he asked heavily. "Winry, I...I've changed in the past five years, you know. I'm not the way I was when I was fifteen."

Anger suddenly boiled up inside Winry's chest, and words bubbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Changed?! You haven't changed a bit! You're still a State Alchemist, charging all over the world and being a hero and not even coming back home for one day!" She turned swiftly to face him, her anger halting the tears about to be shed. "And then when you _do_ come back, you don't even so much as call or tell me why your arm is in pieces!"

Ed frowned crossly. "We've been over this before; it doesn't have anything to do with you. It's not like I _try_ to get hurt so I can make you worry; it's just part of my job."

Winry turned away from him again and said softly, her voice muffled in her scarf, "Just stop."

"Stop what?"

"Stop...saying those things. You're always saying _something_. Something to keep me right here, waiting for you to come back. And you always succeed. I'm _always_ waiting for you, Edward Elric! But I'm not going to wait for you anymore."

"That's why you refused?!" Ed sounded outraged, but Winry kept her back to him. "Do you think this is something you can just decide depending on your emotions?" He let out an irritated sigh that blew past her ear as visible vapor in the cold air. "Winry, if there's one thing I've learned the past few years, it's that love isn't about emotions; it-"

"I know," Winry spat out, so bitterly she could almost taste her words. "Love means you're there for someone when they need you. But Ed, you're _never_ there for me. You aren't there when I need you most; you weren't even there when Granny..." Her voice broke and she desperately wiped away the wetness forming underneath her eyes.

Ed was silent, and somehow Winry just _couldn't_ turn and look at him to see why. Maybe he was still angry, or maybe he just couldn't find the right words to say. Whatever the reason was, he was silent and unhelpful, and the weight of too many emotions bore down on Winry's heart. She started down the hill they stood on, crunching through the piles of golden leaves.

"Wait!" Ed called after her. "Winry...please. I...can't live without you."

Winry crunched to a halt and turned to look back up at him. Truly, he always managed to say just the right thing to make her wait for him. The tears shaking in his voice, the tears shimmering in his eyes, all served to make her as immobile as if they had turned her to stone.

"Winry, I...I'm sorry," he said, his voice so low it was almost a whisper.

"You think you can make all this better just by apologizing?" Winry asked dully.

"No, you're right," Ed replied, sitting down heavily on the cold ground. "I always make you wait for me, not even caring how that must make you feel. I say I love you, but then I just leave you here in the dark and the cold, all alone, waiting and waiting for me to come back. I never come to see you except when it's necessary; I never even call you just to tell you that I'm okay. I make you worry, and I make you wait, and...nothing I say is going to make up for that. I guess...all I can do is ask you to forgive me."

Winry found herself at his side with no recollection of walking over to him, and sat down as well. "Of course I forgive you," she mumbled into her scarf. After sitting in silence for a long time, staring blindly at the vibrant colors of the leaves on the ground, she said, "You know, I didn't just decide based on my emotions. I...I don't think it would work anyway." Even as she said it, she wondered privately what she would do with herself once he had left again. As soon as he disappeared over the hill to the train station, she would be unable to take back her decision. She would be even more alone than before, for Ed would have even less reason to come back. Not even the torture of waiting for him would keep her company.

Judging from the slight pout of his mouth, Ed was thinking hard. Finally he said to his knees, "Would it work if I called every day and came back more often? I don't have unlimited time off, but maybe...once a month...?"

Winry smiled and took his hand in hers, hardly noticing how cold the metal was against her skin. _No matter how many times I tell myself I won't listen, he always manages to find something to say to keep me right here waiting._ "Where'd you put that ring?"


End file.
